my head

For the remaining 75 kilometers, Guderian walked for another day. By the afternoon of June 6th, only one division of Guderian's vanguard reached the opposite side of the small town of Sedan. This division was a new armored division of the German army.

This armored division belongs to the 17th Division of the 17,18,19th Panzer Army of the German SS. There are only three armored divisions under the [-]th Panzer Army, namely the [-]th, [-]th, and [-]th Armored Divisions, while the old SS Panzer Army has four armored divisions. divisions, and they all have names, such as Skeleton Army and Viking Army.

And these newly formed troops, because they have no military exploits, are all numbered. When they have military exploits, they can name their troops. This is the tradition of the SS.

Flender, the division commander of the No.17 Armored Division of the SS Army who arrived at Sedan and drank water from the Meuse River in France, has not been thinking about naming his armored division since he became the division commander. You must know that the named unit is in the In the SS is the honor of the top, and once the unit is named, as long as the unit is not revoked, the name will exist forever. What a worthwhile struggle!

Now that the opportunity has come, Flender led his armored division over the slopes and ridges of the Ardennes Mountains. After going through untold hardships, he finally reached the opposite side of Sedan earlier than other troops. Unfortunately, Flender's armor The troops were blocked by the Meuse River in France, and Flanders' armored division also had pontoon bridge troops. The pontoon bridge troops of a division simply could not assume a pontoon bridge across the Meuse River. Flanders had no choice but to Generator asked Guderian to dispatch the pontoon bridge force urgently.

The French 2nd and 9th armies deployed near Sedan, most of these two armies are composed of first-class or b-level reserve troops, that is to say, they are second-tier and third-tier troops.Guderian's armored army is almost aimed at the junction of the two armies.Some people in later generations suspect that Germany has been quite aware of the French deployment plan.In fact, that is the reason why Zhang Jun has long been familiar with history.

According to the plan of the commander-in-chief of the British army in the north, the 2th Army, which is located in the north of the 9nd Army, will use its junction with the 2nd Army as the origin, and turn forward to occupy May, south of Namor in Belgium. Along the Si River, the plan of action would have required the Ninth Army to march more than 9 kilometers forward.The front occupied by the Ninth Army will reach 70 kilometers.In fact, this is only the air distance. In fact, considering the bend of the Metz River, it is much more than 9 kilometers.The 80th Army has 80 and a half divisions, including 9 light cavalry divisions. They will form a screen in front of the 9th Army to delay possible sudden attacks by the Germans and buy time for the infantry divisions behind to occupy positions.General Clapp's 2th Army was used to occupy the defense line of the Metz River with a total of 9 infantry divisions. (At that time, according to the regulations, the width of an infantry division's defense was only 9 kilometers)

Of these 7 divisions, there are only 2 regular divisions, the 5th Motorized Division and the 4th North African Division.There are also 2 rank reserve divisions, the 18th and 22nd divisions (23% of officers, 17% of non-commissioned officers, and 2% of soldiers are active duty), and the other 2 are b rank reserve divisions, the 61st and 53rd divisions (almost all of them are are reservists).The remaining division, the 102nd Garrison Division, had very few transports.Eight kilometers downstream of the Metz River is the junction of the 8th Army and the 9nd Army. The 2nd Army has only 2 infantry corps, and there is also a cavalry cover like the 2th Army.According to Ganmaling's plan, the 9nd Army will stay put.

The French 2nd Army faced Guderian's 17th Armored Division and it was the 10th Infantry Army that was attacking.In fact, the 10th Infantry Army was combined with the 9th Army in a very dangerous way.In order to cover the Maginot Line from being outflanked, General Grand Sade, commander of the 10th Infantry Army, and General Hunt Zieger, commander of the 2nd Army, deployed the better division - the 3rd North African Division (active division) to the right. , another B-rank reserve division, the 55th Infantry Division deployed on the left, connected to the far right of the 9th Army, the 53rd Infantry Division (another B-rank division). (General Clapp of the 9th Army deployed better troops to the left in order to prevent the troops advancing into Belgium from being outflanked).Behind these 2 divisions, there is the reserve team, another b-level division, belonging to the 10st Infantry Division of the 71th Army.These 3 b-level divisions will guard the river section where Guderian's armored army stormed.That is the section of the river that Flender will attack. [

The morale of these two armies was extremely low. When Lord Brooke recalled reviewing a French army, he recalled: I have rarely seen such a bad army. Man has a sense of honor for his troops.Everyone showed expressions of resentment and disobedience.When ordered to look left, no one obeys. . .

Flender soon received a call back from Guderian, and the message ordered Flender to move eight kilometers downstream immediately, and then the whole army had a good rest. Tomorrow, their armored division will take on the main task of crossing the river. Rand explained that eight kilometers downstream of se is the junction of the French Second Army and the Ninth Army.

Flender immediately ordered his armored troops to rush downstream. Regardless of the distance of only eight kilometers, Flender took two hours to reach the designated position. After arriving here, Flender found another SS unit. , That is the direct flight regiment of the SS Army. There are only two direct flight regiments in the SS Army. Both were originally deployed on the Soviet front, but Zhang Jun urgently transferred one to the French front.

Of course, these helicopters are F223 transport helicopters. This SS direct flight regiment has a total of 160 four planes. Although the transport weight of these helicopters is only two tons, there is basically no armor. It is still possible to block rifles, but there is no way for high-shelf machine guns , with this take-off weight, even if Zhang Jun has r-day ability, there is no way to equip the f233 with thicker armor.

Are these f233 useless?It is very useful, not to mention the transportation, it is a very convenient means of transportation. In addition, Zhang Jun has already refitted all these f233 helicopters. Both sides of the originally ugly f223 are hung with German 150mm six-barrel rocket launchers.It is a German six-barrel rocket launcher. The gun body weighs more than 500 kilograms, and two are 12 kilograms. Adding 150 rockets with a caliber of 8 mm and a range of 31 kilometers, the net weight of one rocket is 223 kilograms, which is just enough for an F223 transport helicopter to carry. .Besides, the horsepower of the current f[-] has also been increased by Zhang Jun's request. In addition to these, it can also carry two machine gunners up to provide the most direct close-air fire support for the troops.

These f223 helicopters with weak defense capabilities, super maneuverability, and super firepower usually follow the armored troops to attack, and will never fly over the enemy's positions alone. The range of ordinary air defense weapons is generally three kilometers. F223 can be completely outside the enemy's firepower, and can launch an attack above the armored forces of one's own side. The armored forces below can completely provide ground protection for the F223 in the air, and the F223 can provide enough fierce fire support for the armored cluster.

Flender's armored division has the direct support of the direct flight regiment, which makes Flender's confidence soar. At that time, the commander-in-chief of the b group army group will definitely send a ju87 dive bomber. This is a powerful and accurate strike. Can the most advanced "three-dimensional blitzkrieg" be stopped by those second- and third-rate French teams?

Difficult, very difficult, even with the natural danger of the Maas River, as long as the German pontoon bridge is erected, France can only collapse, there is no other way.If Zhang Jun's "Black Eagle" makes its debut, then the British and French allied forces can only be wolves.It's a pity that the "Black Hawk" is still undergoing intensive modification, which will take some time. Zhang Jun estimates that by July and August, he will have a large group or a regiment of "Black Hawk" available.

……

Optimistic Allied High Command, the Allied High Command’s estimate of the situation was very optimistic until 11r. The French military attache in London told the British on both 11r and 12r that the main direction of the German offensive was through the Low Countries, at least This time, strategically, the enemy did not reach a surprise attack.Of course, the Germans' current success is largely due to the lack of war preparedness of the Netherlands and Belgium.General Weygand in Syria also believed that the situation was favorable to the Allies.

However, there are still some scraps of intelligence, especially the Royal Air Force's reconnaissance, that there is a powerful German army in the direction of Ardennes.But due to the tight cover of the Luftwaffe and the dense forest, the intelligence was vague.In addition, the fierceness of Bock's offensive in the north also makes people suspect that this is the main force of the German armored forces.In conclusion, the documents of the French High Command at that time did not express any recognition of the danger in the direction of the Ardennes.Instead General George issued a directive, writing that he "foresaw" the need to strengthen the defenses of the local area.Instruct the French 2nd and 3rd Armored Divisions, the 3rd Motorized Division, and the 14th, 36th, and 87th Infantry Divisions to occupy the second-line positions behind Sedan.Orders to these divisions were issued on 11-13r respectively, but it was already too late, and it proved that these divisions would not be able to reach the front when they were most needed.

There was another disagreement between British Gamelin and French General Georges. On 10r, Gamelin had handed over the power of negotiating with the King of Belgium to General Georges, but when he visited the headquarters of General Georges on 11th, he found that General Georges had given up this power Decentralized to General Bill Ott, commander of the French 1st Army Group, and also had the power to coordinate combat plans.Ganmalin was very dissatisfied, but did not take any action

By the morning of the 13th, French 2nd Army cavalry search troops crossed the Meuse to search, a dangerous but necessary move.Flender's armored division was preparing to cross the river and had to stop and fight. The 2nd Cavalry Division and the 5th Cavalry Division still had no way of resisting the SS armored units and began a chaotic retreat, distributed on a 30-kilometer front. Three German armored divisions (3th, 17th, and 18,19th armored divisions) are quickly encircling this front.What is even more dangerous is that the right flank of the cavalry search force of the French 2nd Army, the cavalry unit sent by the French 3rd Army on the Maginot Line of Defense, the 3rd Cavalry Division has returned to France after small-scale contact.On the left flank of the cavalry search unit of the French 2nd Army, a cavalry unit of the French 9th Army retreated behind the Meuse River without fighting.As a result, the left and right flanks of the cavalry search forces of the French 2nd Army lost cover, and of course their fate was to be wiped out, which would have serious consequences for tomorrow's battle.

... (To be continued.)